About Gavin & GBH

Gavin Wheeler bought his first bike in 1973. It was an NSU Quickly, a 1957 German moped, and it broke down so often that he learned basic mechanics just keeping it running. Gavin moved on to a BSA 250, passed his test, switched to a 650, then owned (and thrashed) two 750 Tridents. His next bike was a Moto Guzzi T3, which he crashed spectacularly. He popped into Oxford Motorcycle Engineers (OME) looking for parts to rebuild it, and was hired on the spot.

Gavin worked at OME for 13 years. During this period he worked his way through two Guzzi Le Mans; three V50s — passed on in turn to three different girlfriends; two Ducati 900SSs; and an uncertain number of other machines, some of them bought for pennies as boxes of parts. During his stint at OME Gavin took up racing, on his own Guzzi Le Mans and SS. He was sponsored to race a Kawasaki Formula 1 bike and also raced aSuzuki RG500, TZ250s/350s, and enduro machines. He mechaniced at Le Mans 24 hrs. in the 80s.

Until relocating to Farmoor, Gavin rode to work in all weathers on the VFR750 he bought shortly after setting up GBH in 1993. He also owns an old Honda XL250, on which he toured Iceland in 1992, and has recently picked up a Kawasaki off-roader. He frequently goes touring to France and further afield and currently rides a Triumph Tiger. In Feb 2011 Gavin and his wife, Lou, hired a couple of Royal Enfields and toured South India.

For its first 10 years, GBH leased premises on Minns Estate, Botley, West Oxford. This era came to an end in 2003 with the estate’s re-development as office space. Gavin has now relocated to a permanent workshop in Farmoor, just outside Oxford.